Reparatus vagans
In the lightless roads below the world, Salvagers follow the trail of what others leave behind.
At a glance
Darkvision 60 ft.
Languages Common, Undercommon
Height 5 to 7 feet
Weight 180 to 400 pounds, depending on materials and construction
Lifespan 150 to 300 years
At the table
You are a Construct. You do not need to eat, drink, or breathe, but you still require rest. You can benefit from healing and other effects that restore hit points unless an effect specifically excludes constructs.
Accustomed to searching dim passages and old chambers, you have Darkvision out to 60 feet.
You gain proficiency in Investigation and with one set of artisan's tools of your choice. You can spend 1 minute examining a nonmagical object or mineral to determine its basic material composition and whether it has been altered, damaged, or repaired. This does not reveal its full history, hidden properties, or magical nature.
Common, Undercommon
Salvagers tend toward Constitution and Intelligence, relying on endurance and a knack for understanding objects, but players assign +2/+1 as they wish.
Their bodies often include crystal lenses, mineral plates, or brightly veined stone, and they favor careful observation over quick handling.
Veinseekers specialize in reading rock, ore, and mineral growth. They are often hired to locate safe routes, assess a deposit, or distinguish natural formations from worked stone.
In the lightless roads below the world, Salvagers follow the trail of what others leave behind. They recover lost swords, broken armor, curious stones, and anything else that might prove useful, beautiful, or meaningful. No two look alike: each is a walking record of discoveries and repairs, built from a collection that only they fully understand.
A Salvager is a self-aware construct with a humanoid frame assembled from recovered material.
One may wear a breastplate as a chest, use a chiseled column fragment for a forearm, or bear bright seams of crystal where another has hammered in old coins and scraps of glass. Their faces vary just as widely: carved stone masks, hinged metal plates, painted wooden visors, or arrangements of lenses and polished ore. Every Salvager is visibly individual, with a silhouette, gait, and pattern of repairs that are difficult to mistake for anyone else's. Their voices often carry a faint rattle, click, or resonance from the materials within them.
Underdark tunnels, abandoned mines, buried roads, and the margins of subterranean settlements
Newly assembled, newly awakened, or recently self-aware. They learn quickly by handling objects and watching how people use them.
Most Salvagers spend the bulk of their lives traveling, trading, and building a personal collection of useful finds.
An elder has gathered a remarkable body of knowledge and often becomes a route-keeper, mentor, or trusted appraiser. Their body may be extensively repaired, though age does not require visible deterioration.
Salvagers are defined less by shared ancestry than by a common practice: find what has been lost, determine what it is, and decide what should happen to it next.
Their crews share route knowledge, trade repair techniques, and agree on rules for dividing finds. Many use tokens or careful marks to distinguish abandoned goods from claimed property. A salvager's collection is usually curated, not merely accumulated; its pieces may serve as tools, mementos, evidence, or reminders of past companions. Individual appearance is a point of pride, and replacing a part rarely means restoring an original design.
Salvagers may revere gods of craft, travel, knowledge, or the earth, though many understand faith through the practical acts of keeping a promise or preserving a useful thing.
Their origins are varied, so no alignment is typical. Some believe their purpose was assigned by a maker; others regard purpose as something each person must assemble for themselves.
Many communities value Salvagers as scouts, repairers, and appraisers, but their habit of searching ruins can make them unwelcome around graves, battlefields, and private property.
A Salvager who respects local customs can become a trusted guide; one who treats every unattended object as fair salvage may quickly earn a poor reputation. Salvagers often form strong bonds with the people who help them repair or understand themselves.
Salvagers have no single homeland.
Many gather in ramshackle enclaves built around safe routes, workshops, or rich deposits, where every beam and door has been recovered from somewhere else. Their architecture is legible as a record of the find: a bridge made from old spear shafts, a roof plated with shields, a stair cut through mineral growth. They mark dangerous passages with distinctive arrangements of stones and scrap, leaving practical messages for travelers who know how to read them.
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